JetBlue Makes Big Changes to Its Seats, In-Flight Entertainment

Will the airline still be able to boast having 'the most legroom in coach'?

JetBlue is rolling out new coach seats in a major overhaul of its 16-year-old cabin design, and yes, you’ve heard that news before: as far back as 2013, the airline has been hinting at big changes on its all-coach Airbus A320 fleet. More than a year ago, JetBlue announced that it would add 15 seats to the current 150 on each plane. But now that the changeover is really happening—JetBlue will begin phasing in the new "core" product over the next three years—is there anything big left to announce?

In short, yes. The carrier is adding 12, not 15, seats to its cabins, and it's also adding living space by relocating galleys that take up less room. Like today’s layouts, there will be some rows with more legroom—these are currently known as "even more space" seats and cost an additional fee—and some with less. The seat pitch will range from 32" to 33" in standard rows, and JetBlue is still claiming that it will have the most legroom in coach, "based on average fleet-wide seat pitch." But a lot will ride on the most subjective of factors: customer perception.

To that end, JetBlue is ramping up the inflight connectivity and entertainment features to the point where you might not even care about the comfort of the seat you’re strapped into. And while the airline already has free high-speed Wi-Fi throughout the flight on much of its fleet, a lot will be different, such as new 10-inch, high-definition touch screens (up from the 6.5-inch screens today); in-flight streaming entertainment built on the Google Android platform, which lets you connect your personal device to the seatback screen, and more TV than any couch potato could manage—think 100 DirecTV channels, up from the current 36. Fliers can also begin streaming and downloading content even before the flight departs, from JetBlue’s content portal, The Hub, with access to Amazon video, The Wall Street Journal, and other sources. Each seat will have a power port outlet.

So will passengers feel jammed in a la Spirit Air? That’s not likely, given the fact that 162 seats is what JetBlue started out with when it debuted. But will people miss those genuine leather seats—which was a major selling point when the airline debuted in 2000 with the admittedly implausible goal of "bringing humanity back to travel"? It turns out that JetBlue has already been quietly road-testing the new coach seat on its Airbus A321s, which are larger and also feature the carrier's premium class, Mint, on some transcontinental flights. "We've seen a fantastic uptick in customer satisfaction with the new seats," said Jamie Perry, the company's vice president brand and product development. "Some of these earlier seats are 16 years old," he added, "and it is time for a change." Perry admitted that the introduction of the Mint class had somewhat stolen the thunder from the much larger coach overhaul. "Seat technology has advanced," he said, claiming that the new versions—they're covered in "e-leather," which is made from actual leather scraps but lighter than the real thing—are "safer, lighter, and more comfortable." It's also worth noting that even with lower jet fuel prices, the saving in weight—about a thousand pounds per aircraft—is an enormous benefit to the bottom line.